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Off season moves: This was quite a busy off season for GM Mike Rizzo as over a third of the 25 man roster from last season has turned over. We'll get to the biggest one first, some guy who wore a #34 here signed with the stupid team with the ugly "P" logo up north, but at least that's the one thing all us Nats fans, Braves fans, and Mets fans can agree upon now: These Philly fans are going to be annoying this year Their biggest addition was the addition of D'Backs LH starting pitcher Patrick Corbin. Other minor moves:
After trading Matt Adams to the Cards in August, they resigned him
After trading Gio Gonzalez to the Brewers in August, he signed a minor league deal with the Yankees
After trading Daniel Murphy to the Cubs in August, he signed a 2 year deal with the Rockies
Starting catcher Matt Weiters signed with the Cards as Yadi's back up, and the Nats have 2 new catchers: former Nat Kurt Suzuki resigned in Wash after spending the last few years in Atlanta, while they traded a prospect to the Indians for their starting catcher Yan Gomes who will be the opening day starter in Washington.
Brian Dozier was signed to a 1 year deal to be the new second basemen.
They lost Greg Holland (D'Backs), Kelvim Herrera (White Sox), and Tim Collins (Cubs minor leagues) and replaced them with a trade for Marlins reliever Kyle Barraclough and former Cardinals closer Trevor Rosenthal who missed all of last year coming off Tommy John surgery, while Mark Reynolds signed on with the Rockies.
They traded Tanner Roark to the Reds (I believe the first Tanner for Tanner trade in MLB history) and replaced him in the rotation with Annibal Sanchez, and they finished off the busy off season with the signing of ex-Astros LHP Tony Sipp.

Best case for the Nats in 2019: I actually like this team better than last year's team which was picked to run away with the division, and without Harper and his sideshow antics, hopefully they can just put their heads down and play baseball. Maybe one of the reasons I like this team is that Strasburg, Juan Soto, Eaton, Turner, Rendon aren't going to speak bulletin board material to the media, so I think they'll be quite boring, no one will want to talk about them, but that will be better because we can sneak up on the Phillies (the off season champion. Talk to the Padres & Blue Jays about how that "championship" feels) and last year's winner the Braves. Ending last season they had 3 major holes on the roster: C, 2b & RP, and they have fixed all 3 areas. The division is tough, but Rizzo overhauled the roster, if Soto can continue to produce from last year, Eaton stays healthy, Rendon can put the contract talks past him, and we get competent outings out of our bullpen arms, and Scherzer's arm stays on, this is a playoff caliber team. Whether or not they get there remains to be seen, but if everything in that prior sentence happens, they should finish in the 85-92 win range which hopefully will be enough for a division and or Wildcard.

Worst case for the Nats in 2019: After bumbling his way through 2018, Martinez bumbles his way through 2019 as well. The bullpen for a second year in a row is a complete disaster. After a whole off season looking at the scouting reports, teams figure out Soto, so instead of the Juanderful one he's just an average player in 2019. Taylor will already start the season on the injured list, and Robles and Eaton soon follow him to the IL, so now a team already short on OF depth as it is, is drowning in it. After being at the top of his game and top of his craft for the last decade, Scherzer finally shows wear and tear on his arm and elbow, and struggles through a .500, 4.75 ERA season. Rendon struggles through this season with the contract talks looming, and after getting nothing for Harper, team brass deals him at the deadline. With the competition in the division, any of the above happening will surely end whatever playoff hopes they may have.

My predictions for 2019: Well, this will be fun! Any divisional games will be must watch action on MLB TV this year. As I said above I actually like the makeup of this team better than the one that started 2018. Martinez, through trial & error will be much better equipped to make better decisions this year than last year. The bullpen is better. The OF is better. The starting rotation is probably better. The catcher position is infinitely better, while only the bench has probably downgraded from last year. Everything but the bench and possibly the starting rotation is better in 2018 than in 2019. Of course the division is much improved, but I think they get contributions out of everyone, and they sneak by the Mets & Braves for the division title, and as a bonus point, 3 playoff round wins too. This team has no expectations, it's all "gloom and doom because #34 is gone." That's the time to go out and win your first playoff series!

First game of the year on Thursday: Jacob deGrom (10-9, 1.70, 2018 Cy Young winner) takes on Max Scherzer (18-7, 2.53 Cy runner up) in a great pitchers duel! Game time from Nats park at 1:05.

I actually didn't mind that. It's not likely you get a 2 out rally started and I would've trusted Max in the 8th even at over 100 pitches over any of those guys in the bullpen, plus Justin Wilson comes in to face Adams anyways. It wouldn't have mattered anyways because this team wasn't hitting Lugo, Familia or Diaz, but I'm more mad at the fact Davey took him out mid inning , look at what happened after that 2 straight singles with 2 outs which put the game out of reach, I think Scherzer would've retired Alonzo.

Max Scherzer struck out the side in the first but allowed a 2 out homer to new Met Robbie Cano on a ball to CF that looked like a harmless fly ball off the bet that carried over the CF wall. In the bottom half, Trea Turner would single, and after Anthony Rendon flied out center, Turner would steal second, Juan Soto drew a walk in his first plate appearance of the year, but Ryan Zimmerman would line out to third to end the scoring threat. The next scoring threat came in the 3rd: Victor Robles lead off with a double, went to 3rd on an Adam Eaton single, but Jacob deGrom would get Turner to strikeout, and than Rendon would end the inning on a 5-4-2-5 double play. How did that happen you ask?? Good question! Rendon hit one to Jeff McNeil at third who froze Robles at 3rd and than threw to second to try to start the inning ending 5-4-3 traditional double play. However, after McNeil threw to second for the second out, Robles broke home, and instead of trying for the 3rd out at 1st, Cano instead went home, and got Robles in a rundown. A total TOOTBLAN play from Robles . Next scoring threat would be in the 6th: Turner lead off with a single, stole second, but Rendon couldn't get him to 3rd as he grounded out to SS. Turner took getting to 3rd on his own with a steal of 3rd, his third stolen base of the game, but got left there as Soto struck out on a great pitch from deGrom, probably his best pitch of the game, and than Zimmerman flied out to right. Mets would get an insurance run in the 8th: Dominic Smith drew a 1 out walk, and after Scherzer struck out Brandon Nimmo, he got taken out for Justin Miller, and Miller would allow a single to Pete Alonso, and than Matt Grace would allow a squibber that got in between short and third for his second RBI of the day. deGrom (1-0) allowed 1 walk with 10 strikeouts with 5 hits allowed in 6 scoreless innings, Seth Lugo (1st hold), and Jeurys Familia (1st hold) each had 1-2-3 innings with a combined 3 strikeouts, and Edwin Diaz (1st save) had his first save a Met with a 1-2-3 9th with a strikeout. Game 2 of the series goes on Saturday after a Friday off day. Noah Syndergaard (13-4, 3.03 in '18) starts for the Mets against Stephen Strasburg (10-7, 3.74) with game time scheduled for 1:05.

This weekend down to Washington?? No. I'll be in DC for like 10 days in July, I'll catch a couple games in the time I'm down there. Maybe next Sunday down in Queens though depending on what my schedule for next weekend looks like.

Stephen Strasburg had 3 strikeouts in the first, just like Max Scherzer on Thursday, and just like Scherzer, he allowed a 1st inning run. Pete Alonso would single sandwiched around strikeouts from Brandon Nimmo (1st out) and Robbie Cano (2nd out). Michael Conforto would single advancing to 2nd on a throwing error by CF Victor Robles as he tried to throw out Alonso at third, Wilson Ramos would double, Jeff McNeil would triple, before Strasburg finally ended the inning with a strikeout of Ahmed Rosario. Noah Syndergaard struck out Adam Eaton and Trea Turner to lead off the bottom half, Anthony Rendon followed with a double, Juan Soto had an RBI single and stole 2nd, but Ryan Zimmerman struck out. Syndergaard drew a 1 out walk, Nimmo advanced him to second, and Alonso drove him with an RBI double for a 4-1 Mets lead. Alonso would get to 3rd on a passed ball by Kurt Suzuki, but Cano flied out to end the inning. McNeil and Rosario had back-to-back 2 out singles in the 3rd, but Brian Dozier retired J.D. Davis on a great diving-back handed play to keep the Mets off the scoreboard. Robles homered to lead off the 3rd, and Eaton was hit by a pitch to follow. A Turner ground out, and Rendon strike out lead to Soto's second 2 out RBI single of the day to cut the lead to 4-3. Victor Robles singled to lead off the 5th, but got picked off which was big because 2 batters later Turner doubled which could've scored Robles, and Rendon was called out on strikes to end the inning so we stay at a 4-3 Mets lead, which would not last much longer though. Soto gets his 3rd hit off the day, a double, to lead off the 6th, goes to 3rd on a Zimmerman ground out, and scores on Suzuki's sac fly to tie the score at 4. Ramos and McNeil greeted Trevor Rosenthal with back-to-back singles to start the 8th, Rosenthal followed with a walk to Rosario to load the bases, and Davis brought in 2 with an RBI single. The Mets would add a 7th run when Kyle Barraclough balked in Rosario, and an 8th run (4th in the inning) on an Alonso double, but Matt Grace got Cano to strike out to prevent any further runs from scoring. Rendon sandwiched a single around 2 strike outs to Turner & Soto, but the Nats would get a threat going in the 8th off of Jeurys Familia as Zimmerman followed with a walk, and Suzuki reached on an error to load the bases, and Matt Adams pinch hitting for Dozier flied out to deep right. Conforto singled to start the 9th, and Ramos followed with a walk, and McNeil had a RBI double. Wander Suero retired the next 2 Mets batters, but couldn't get a 3rd as Dominic Smith followed with a 2 out RBI single to finish the scoring for the Mets on the day. And those 2 extra runs the Mets scored with 2 outs would loom large in the bottom half. Andrew Stevenson drew a lead off walk (up 7 no less ) and Robles reached on an error. Eaton followed with a strikeout, but Turner would walk to load the bases. Rendon got a painful RBI as he got hit by a pitch to force in Stevenson, Soto kept it at 11-5 as he struck out, Zimmerman uncleared the bases with a 3 run double, and despite going into the 9th up 7 runs, Edwin Diaz has to throw a single pitch as he gets Suzuki to fly out to LF to end the day. Syndergaard allowed 4 runs on 7 hits (1 homer) with 0 walks (1 hit batter) and 7 strikeouts, Justin Wilson (1-0) picks up his first win as a Met with a 1-2-3 9th, Seth Lugo (2nd hold) picks up a hold despite allowing 4 runs (but 0 of them were earned) on 1 hit with 2 walks (1 hit batter) and 2 strikeouts, and Diaz (2nd save) throws a single pitch in recording the last out of the game. Strasburg allowed 4 runs on 7 hits with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts in 6 innings, and Rosenthal (0-1) has a debut to forget as all 4 batters he faced (3 hits, 1 walk) come around to score.

Mets go for the sweep on Sunday. Zack Wheeler (12-7, 3.31 in '18) starts for the Mets against Patrick Corbin (11-7, 3.15 last year with the D'Backs) with first pitch scheduled for 1:35 from the DMV.

What caught my eye most today was Strasburg hanging around 92 mph. If this is his new normal, I do suspect he will remain a solid, but not overwhelming starter, with a long, pricey contract. If he gets back up past 95mph, I see much better seasons from him going forward. 4 of his last 5 seasons have produced WHIPs above 1.1.

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